freedom is a gradual process

hi there.

i've just got back from speaking at Carey Grammar on the topic of "Be the change you want to see in the world" (Gandhi). It was fun, good, the kids asked good questions etc. But it made me reflect on something. I've written before about the tendency to oversimplify issues surrounding refugee policy. If you tell a story about a person or a family in detention, kids will say, "where are they now?", and then if I say they've been released into the community, you can see the relief on the kids' faces, as if to say "oh, then why are you telling us that?? it's over now, if they're free". But it's really not so. The conditions of the visas that people get released onto are - frankly - the polar opposite of freedom. Temporary Protection Visas, Bridging Visas E and Return Pending Bridging Visas are basically DESIGNED to keep people from feeling comfortable, relaxed, or - God forbid - at home in Australia. I'll write more about these soon, hopefully.

And that's just the visas. There is no prison more secure than the human mind. Some ex-detainees are so completely traumatised by their experiences in and before detention that they have lost the capacity to behave normally. They are strange in social situations, many abuse alcohol, most are chain smokers, and don't even TALK to me about dependence on sleeping tablets and anti-depressants. One friend of mine has become LESS good at speaking English since he was released from detention. He is LESS coherent now than he was three years ago. I don't know if that means he gave up the will to learn, or whether his brain is working against him, but it's symptomatic that somethin' ain't right.

And then there are the people who really can't cope, to the extent that they are requesting to be put back in detention because they don't know what to do with themselves in the community. What madness would drive them to do such a thing?! This should *NOT* be seen as a reason for the government to be smug about how great and "safe" its detention centre are. It should be a searing indictment against their policy of fairly actively causing people to become emotionally and socially handicapped through their long periods of incarceration.

It's terrible :(